Access America Travel Insurance
Written: Jul 12 '02 (Updated Jul 12 '02)
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Pros: Competitive pricing, good coverage, wonderful customer service.
Cons: Different products available through different internet sites.
The Bottom Line: As long as their prices stay competitive, this will be the one of the first places I look for trip insurance.
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| colleenmf's Full Review: Access America International |
Please note the only reason I have not given Access America a five star rating is because I have not had to file a claim. I hope I never have to but that is the true test of an insurance company. A great price and plenty of coverage mean nothing if you can’t collect or must jump through hoops to do so. If their customer service is any indication, they are very customer friendly. For this reason I have rated the claims processing as average. I just don’t know about their claim service.
Why Get Insurance
Now that we have hit middle age, our parents are senior citizens, and several family members have passed away in the last few years, we always buy trip insurance for our bigger vacations. It seems like the prudent thing to do when we are spending several thousand dollars on a vacation package although we don’t buy travel insurance for a simple plane trip.
Last summer (2001), I booked a Renaissance Cruise for the summer of 2002 to celebrate our tenth anniversary. The cruise line offered an insurance package but for some reason I felt the need to get my insurance separately from the trip. (I did not know REN would go out of business by late September but some part of me wanted to keep the trip purchase and the insurance purchase separate.) The trip package that we purchased started in Los Angeles so we would have to get ourselves out there. REN’s insurance only covered the package purchased starting in Los Angeles, yet I knew I would have additional airfare and a night or two in a hotel before and after the trip. I wanted the entire trip covered.
Buying the Insurance Package
I did some searching on the internet and found a company called Access America which provides insurance to residents of the USA and Canada. Their letterhead lists the following two websites but I used the first one to get some pricing information.
http://www.accessamerica.com
http://www.worldaccess.com
The website is easy to navigate. You can compare products (actually comparing coverage options), get pricing, purchase, and even file a claim on line. I was able to email a few questions to verify that they did cover Renaissance Cruises and that I could buy one policy to cover all portions of my trip. Since I did not have, nor did I wish to buy, airfare to LAX for a year in the future, they told me to estimate the cost, add it to the coverage and when I purchased it later it would be covered.
Using their web site to purchase our insurance, I had my choice of Basic, Standard, and Comprehensive plans for their per-trip products. (They also offer two multi-trip products for people who travel a great deal.) Basic coverage is for trip cancellation/interruption only. Standard coverage is for Emergency medical, emergency transportation, Baggage Loss or delay, travel delay, and missed connection. Comprehensive Coverage included both Basic and Standard. All Coverages have 24 hour Hotline assistance.
In order to buy the actual policy, I had to put in the dates of the trip, the total cost per person for all portions, and our birth dates. You can pay with a credit card or call their toll free number to complete the transaction. I actually received information in the mail and then submitted it back that way. My paperwork arrived about 10 days later.
Customer Service
About 10 weeks after I purchased my trip and the insurance, Renaissance cruises ceased operations and filed for bankruptcy. I started researching my options. Since I had paid for the cruise with a credit card I first asked them about a refund seeing as the company had not delivered what I had paid for. Just in case, I also called Access America to see what to do if I needed to file a claim. The customer service agent was most helpful explaining my choices. I could file a claim and get a complete refund through them (This was as close as I came to filing a claim. I did not even request the paperwork.) or if I got a refund from the credit card I could apply the insurance to a different trip. If the new trip cost more than the old one, the insurance would then cost more, I could simply pay the difference. I had until the day of our planned departure to make this change. I could extend the coverage until July 2003 as long as I made the change by July 2002.
Over the course of the next few months, I managed to get a refund to my credit card and proceeded to book another cruise. Once again I called Access America to get the policy switched and once again I had a very competent customer service agent. They verified that they insured Radisson Cruises, they made the appropriate changes, billed my credit card the difference, and sent me the paperwork in a week. This time I noticed that they recommend that each traveler should carry a copy of the certificate of insurance. I only had one copy, the one I received last summer. So I called them again and was assured that it was current and told I could make a copy if I wished. Since it was larger than legal size yellow paper with blue ink I didn’t think the copy would turn out so well. They offered to send another one.
I have had at least four occasions to call Access America and have spoken with a different agent each time. They have all been pleasant, helpful, and informative. I never felt like a nuisance or an idiot for asking all these questions. Each one has had access to my account every time I called.
The Coverage
Now this is the tricky part. I actually found this company on another website called
http://insuremytrip.com
and I highly recommend this website to do your initial search.
They allow you to put in your trip information, then give you a list of policies that may fit your need. A recent inquiry turned up 11 package policies for my trip. They were listed by company name and cost and ranged in price form $318 to $957. Two of those 11 had less coverage than I had requested and were so marked. I could then pick as many of those as I wanted to compare in a spread sheet format. Each policy also had a link to view details and to buy.
The Access America policy available thru insuremytrip.com is called “Travel with Ease Deluxe”. This policy does not seem to be available through the accessamerica.com web site. The best policy available there is the Comprehensive one. The coverage for the Deluxe is better than for the Comprehensive. The Deluxe includes the same coverage as the Comprehensive as well as Collision Loss Damage Insurance, Trip Inconvenience, and Travel Accident Insurance. You can get either policy by calling the toll free number 1-800-284-8300.
After another informative phone call to their customer service agents I can summarize the difference as follows:
Comprehensive
Trip Cancellation/Interruption up to $30,000
Emergency Medical/Dental $10,000
Emergency Medical Transportation $20,000
Baggage Coverage $750
Baggage Delay $200
Travel Delay $500
Missed Connection $500
24-hour Hotline Assistance included
Collision Loss Damage NA
Trip Inconvenience NA
Travel Accident NA
Deluxe
Trip Cancellation/Interruption up to trip cost
Emergency Medical/Dental $20,000
Emergency Medical Transportation $40,000
Baggage Coverage $1,000
Baggage Delay $200
Travel Delay $500
Missed Connection $500
24-hour Hotline Assistance included
Collision Loss Damage $25,000
Trip Inconvenience $100
Travel Accident $50,000
A more recent visit to www.insuremytrip.com and I find that Access America is offering a new policy with more coverage called Navigator Comprehensive. So, I recommend researching and calling them to see which of their various policies would fit your needs.
Navigator
Trip Cancellation/Interruption up to trip cost
Emergency Medical/Dental $50,000
Emergency Medical Transportation $200,000
Baggage Coverage $1,500
Baggage Delay $500
Travel Delay $1,000
Missed Connection $500
24-hour Hotline Assistance included
Collision Loss Damage $25,000
Trip Inconvenience $100
Travel Accident $50,000
Just six weeks before our trip, I received some updated material from Access America. The policy now includes some limited amounts of coverage for terrorism. This is part of their cancellation/interruption coverage and covers terrorist acts in the United States. The coverage includes changing a trip after an attack, being stranded due to an attack, or returning home immediately after an attack. They also claim to work with your travel agent to keep you in touch with family and employer and to help you locate loved ones. Now that is one part of the policy I hope NO ONE ever has to use.
More Details
Access America accepts all major credit cards and covers pre-existing conditions if purchased within 14 days of the trip reservation. Their prices are dependent on trip length and travelers’ ages. They provide a toll free number for calls within the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. Otherwise they provide a regular phone number an invite their customers to call collect.
Special Note
As I have planning our trip I have been reading various bulletin boards on the web. Some people have complained that they bought Access America Insurance for a Renaissance Cruise and when they received a refund from their credit card for the cruise, they expected a refund for the cost of the insurance from Access America. Their logic is that they did not take the trip so they don’t need the insurance. The logical fallacy here is that most of the Access America plans cover pre-existing conditions (if the insurance is purchased within 14 days of booking the trip) and pre-trip accidents or emergencies. Therefore the coverage DOES start before the trip. Since most of the insurance coverage is for the actual trip, I think allowing customers to reassign the policy to another trip is fair and customer friendly. I even heard of a person who received a small refund because they assigned their policy to a less costly trip.
Summary
I hope I never have to file a trip insurance claim in my entire life. But if the claims agents are as knowledgeable and helpful as the customer service agents then Access America may just be the place to purchase your trip policies. The coverage can be tailored to the travelers needs, they have 24 hour telephone assistance, and have so far been an easy company to work with. A good trip insurance package should ease any concerns and allow the traveler to have a happier, more secure vacation.
In the future, I will use the insuremytrip.com website and even if Access America may not be the lowest priced insurance, their customer service will weigh heavily into my purchasing decision. Besides, I can always get the lesser insurance through Access America’s own web site.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
colleenmf
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 - Top 500 |
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Member: Colleen Farley
Location: Lubbock, TX
Reviews written: 146
Trusted by: 144 members
About Me:
Happily married, mostly retired, and addicted to the internet.
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